Americans with Disabilities Act

Americans with Disabilities Act,

U.S. civil-rightscivil rights,rights that a nation's inhabitants enjoy by law. The term is broader than "political rights," which refer only to rights devolving from the franchise and are held usually only by a citizen, and unlike "natural rights," civil rights have a legal as well as a.....Click the link for more information. law, enacted 1990, that forbids discrimination of various sorts against persons with physical or mental handicaps. Its primary emphasis is on enabling these persons to enter the job market and remain employed, but it also outlaws most physical barriers in public accommodations, transportation, telecommunications, and government services. Among the protected class are persons with AIDS and substance abusers who are in treatment. Some 50 million current or potential workers are estimated to be covered by the law's provisions. Studies suggest that the number of disabled persons entering the workforce has not improved significantly, and that a contributing factor may be their reluctance to lose (e.g., because personal income would exceed statutory maximums) other benefits available to them on the basis of their disabilities. The act has already been much litigated. In 1999, for instance, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that correctable conditions like eyesight requiring the use of glasses do not qualify as disabilities under the act, and a 2002 decision established that a disability must limit a person's ability to perform tasks of central importance not just in the workplace but in daily life. In response to some interpretations of the act that narrowed its enforcement, Congress enacted amendments in 2008 that were designed to make the law more inclusive.

Americans with Disabilities Act

(ADA)

A federal law that defines requirements for handicapped access to public facilities, as described in the ADA Guidelines. It requires removal of existing barriers, except any that would be harmful to the historic significance of a structure.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

A federal law, enacted in 1990, requiring that public accommodations be accessible to those having physical disabilities; this law mandates that existing physical barriers be replaced or modified so there are no impediments to access by the physically disabled. For detailed information, write the US Equal Employment Opportunities Commission, 1801 L Street, NW, Washington, DC 20507. See American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Standard A117.1-1992. Also see Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards and physical disability.

The passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990 (PL 101-336), along with the recent reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Amendments of 1997 (PL 105-17), has led to an expanding social awareness of disability issues and, increasingly, to students with disabilities seeking access to colleges, universities and vocational technical programs (Benz, Doren & Yovanoff, 1998; Stodden, 1998).

The lawsuit was filed under the Americans with Disabilities Act and seeks to require the restaurant chain to make ``reasonable modifications'' to its no-shoes policy and train employees to accommodate children with disabilities.

Long before there was an Americans with Disabilities Act, there was Public Law 94-142, passed in 1975, which made it clear that states were to provide a "free and appropriate" public education to all disabled kids.

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